(Prologue)

"What the hell am I going to do now?" I cried in frustration at one of my classmates. "Finals are around the corner and I don't have time to sit around and wait for a person to show up with my study papers, when I should be at home, resting and studying while I'm trying to get over this damn cold."

"Calm down, Acadia. Sheesh, if you keep that up you are going to make yourself sicker." Said my female lab partner while we walked around our college campus. "Why don't we do this since you wont' stop complaining. Since you are sick and I live a few blocks away from your apartment, I can drop off your study-guide in the morning. End of problem and end of complaining."

I glared at her but didn't say anything. Instead, I just shrugged my shoulders while adjusting my navy wool jacket to keep out the cold wind. It was the middle of winter in Ontario, Canada. Snow had been pilling up everywhere all over the city, making it hard for both college students such as myself, and the general public to even get around without getting stuck at some point.

Sighing deeply while pulling out my cell phone, the time said it was only two-thirty in the afternoon. "Listen, Bianca, I think I'll just go straight home and cook myself some chicken broth and rice before going to sleep." I said with a slight face before sneezing several times into my overused napkin. "See you in the morning."

"Just get plenty of sleep. Besides, finals are less than a week off and whats the worse that can happen between now and then?" Bianca laughed while grabbing her keys from her purse. "I'll drive you home since you are in no condition whatsoever to be walking around in this cold and snow while battling a fever and cold."

"Whatever you say." I grumpily replied while following my partner to her small blue bug in the student parking lot. "I'm surprised that you still managed to make it to school in time for the lab work after last night's downpour of constant snow. I barely made it outside my apartment door before some of this snow fell on top of my head this morning."

Bianca smirked. She unlocked the car and got into the driver's seat while I sneezed again for what seemed like the millionth time this week. "God, I wish that colds never existed at all so I can live a life normally." I cried while slamming the passenger door closed behind me.

"Hey, easy on the door." She said while turning on the car. "This baby cost me a lot of money and I'm not about to have you break her just over a stupid cold."

"Sorry."

"Don't be. The sooner I get you home, the sooner you will be able to get some warm food in your stomach, take a hot shower, get into some comfy clothes and crash out for the rest of the day and night."

I stared down at my gloved covered hands. "Totally." I replied. "Make the rest, work the hell out of my brain and get the grades so I can graduate and move on with my life."

Looking out the window, I mused about how far I came since going to college.

As you know, my name is Acadia Thomas.

I am twenty-three years old and am a senior at Ontario university.

Worked over the summer and winter break to help pay for my little apartment and bills and hardly hang out with friends or family since I'm more of a quite person that prefers to read books at home. I don't really have much of a social life and I don't have a boyfriend since in my personal opinion they are nothing but trouble and distractions from what really matters in life.

I am what some people would label me as a bitch, but not really since I'm not the social type.

Love to play sports whenever I can, if not, I read tons and tons of books. The Lord of the Rings and the movie series are my ultimate favorite since its a world that I can easily imagine myself being in whenever I watch or read the books.

A world filled with magic, beautiful people, music, stories and life.

A world that I always had in my mind and heart, wished that it was real so I can be other than myself. I have always been told that sometimes based on how I act or am around people, its like I was never meant to be here or at least, live this lifetime where technology was rampant and fast food was the top thing to eat instead of eating healthy.

Yup, I'm crazy and I don't give a fuck.

"Ok, we are here now." Bianca's voice broke through my inner thoughts. "Just don't slam my door again."

"Sure, sure. Thanks for the ride. See you in the morning." I said to her while struggling to get myself out of her small car. "Perhaps its time for you to upgrade to a bigger car with more leg room." I added with a lopsided smirk while grabbing my backpack. "I don't think your long shanked boyfriend will be able to fit in here much longer if you keep her."

"Oh, shut up and get inside before you come down with something other than your cold." She shook her head. "See you."

I waved goodbye and watched her drive away before sighing in relief at the prospect of food, hot shower and sleep. Getting the mail wasn't really a hassle since my apartment door had a build in slider where the mail man just dropped the mail through the slot. I grabbed them with a groan at the dizzy sensation in my head. "Fuck, I hate being sick." I said to the room. Tossing my backpack on the couch, I put away my keys on the front table before making my way into the kitchen.

It was small, but it was enough to allow me to go around with plenty of space and storage, thank God I had because I tend to have a lot of things that also included food. I grabbed a small pot and filled it with some chicken broth from the can, placed it on the stove after turning it on and headed down the hallway to my bedroom, shedding my heavy jacket and scarf with more groaning.

Things seemed to ache all over my body and after checking my temperature, it was apparent that rest was the only option I had to being able to make to all of my finals in once piece, if not decent enough to not be a bother in class while still sick.

After searching for clean clothes to wear after my shower, I quickly went back to the kitchen and poured my fully heated soup into a bowl. I didn't really want any rice, but I put some anyway since my body needed much more than just liquids at the moment. I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, some crackers from my snack cabinet and proceeded to eating my meal in the living room while watching some stupid romance sitcom without really paying any attention to the show.

Like I said before, romance or any type or romance of any sort, wasn't really my thing. I'm straight as a can be, but after seeing my parents divorce after twenty-eight years of marriage just because their love life went out in ashes, I figured that love was only a feeling that could easily be ignored. I never really found myself to be good looking enough to be considered pretty or even beautiful in the eyes of both male and female, though my mother would say otherwise since I get most of my better attributes from her, not my father.

Long wavy black hair, fair complexion with a little freckles along my nose bridge, not too tall, but tall enough that most boys wouldn't really want to hang around me since I'm 5'7 and 1/2. Because I'm more of an athletic type of person, my body was slender and well toned. But with all of this, came with constantly being sickly and always fighting colds and flues with trips to the hospital as a child.

Now that I'm older and fully grow, I didn't get sick as much, but when I did come down with something, I felt like dying because it took forever and ever to get better to where I was able to function.

I quickly finished eating my dinner and hurried to my bathroom to take the much needed hot shower. The hot spray of water made me sigh out loud with a little giggle as it flowed over my aching body. I shaved my legs and washed the day's sweat and grime before shampooing my long hair. I think its time that I get it cut soon. It was one of my most prized parts of myself that I actually was vain about, but it took too much maintenance to keep it up.

The trips to the salon to keep it trim and looking nice. Shampooing with the right products, brushing and combing any tangles that it would get. All of my hair alone, took at least twenty minutes out both my mornings and nights.

"Perhaps I should just get it cut mid-length." I said to my reflection in my bathroom mirror. "That way mom wouldn't be screaming at me for it and wondering how long it would take to grow this sucker out." I blew a kiss before getting into my sweat pants, pink t-shirt with a hello kitty image in the front, socks and toweling off my hair before putting some Moroccan oil the damp strands for shine and strength.

I practically threw myself onto my bed after pulling the covers back. "Ahh, I think I'll just sleep away tonight and skip studying for the day tomorrow." I said while drifting off into a sleep. "My rest is more important."

"Crash!"

I woke up with a start and screamed. "FUCKEN SHIT! WHERE THE FUCK AM I?"

Rain was pouring over me like torrents and I found myself laying on hard, wet, muddy cold ground outside. Stumbling to my feet, I tried to figure out if weather or not I was still dreaming or perhaps I had died suddenly in my sleep and woke up in not a version of what I called heaven. A roll of thunder above in the dark sky had me screaming again as I tried to get to my feet.

Stumbling over a rock, I scrapped my hands on the rough ground, causing them to bleed while I tried in vain to make sense, anything other than what my eyes were seeing right now as the pain laced itself through my brain. "Fucken shit! That hurts!" I cried. Looking ahead, I saw a low river flowing below an embankment and a long line of trees across the way that I thought would help offer me some shelter at of this rain.

I was wet from head to toe, my long hair plastered to my face and clothes soaked to the point I was shivering violently before I managed to make my way down to the edge of the river. A shrilled bird whistled and my head snapped up at the sound, trying to locate it before another one answered, this time more louder from across the river.

Not caring it weather or not I was dreaming, all I wanted was to get across the river and under the protection of the trees from the rain and cold. Even if I had to somehow dig my way into a pile of leaves, I didn't care just as long as I was out of the horrid weather. "Come on, Acadia." I whispered while taking my first step into the cold water. "You can do this." Another bird cried out, this time making four shrills, but I ignored it, focusing only on getting on the other side.

Another step with the other foot and ankle deep, I was beyond shivering as I slowly made my inch by inch into the fringed water. "This is so not the way I perceive a good dream." I said with chattering teeth as I got half way across, holding onto large rocks here and there. My body was screaming in protest but my mine was saying otherwise as I forced myself to keep moving forward, inch by fucken inch.

I was almost within perhaps three feet of the shore when my vision began to swim in all kinds of directions. I stopped for a moment to get my breath, not noticing shadows of tall shapes starting to form amid the trees. "I can't fucken take much of this." I said while pushing my feet forward. "Almost there..." I said, struggling to not sub come to the dizzy sensation that my head was taking. "Just a few...more..." I stumbled forward, but instead of hitting the rocks as I expected, I fell into something warm and hard.

Opening my eyes, I saw a blond haired man staring down at me with sharp grey eyes that seemed to pierce my very soul to its core. He spoke to me in a tongue that sounded foreign, shaking me gently in what i found was his arms. Six other blond men were also standing around me with wide eyes while they talked rapidly amide themselves. My savior shook his head when one of them asked him a question before fixing me with another stare that made me blink despite myself.

"What is your name?" He asked in a firm voice. "What business do you have in crossing the waters of my lands without the permission of the march-wardens?"

If the situation had been slightly different, I would have laughed outright in his face and told him to go fuck himself, but with the way he stared down at me, I had a sick feeling things would not go well for me if I insulted the one who caught me before I face-planted in rock and dirt. I tried to struggle in his arms, but his fingers dug into my wet shirt until I winced. "What is your name, mortal?" He asked me again, this time in a tone that told me I better obey or risk something unpleasant.

"Please, I'm sick and I don't know where I am." I said in a weak voice. My stomach rolled and I started to hack up some spit. He immediately got down to his knees and held my head to one side so I can vomit before wiping my mouth with a clothe that he produced from a side pouch. It was then that I noticed that everyone was dressed in leather boots, grey wool clothing from pants to shirts and they had weapons.

Weapons as in bows and arrows.

"Holy shit!" I cried before throwing up again, narrowly missing one of the blond's booted foot. "Sorry." I said between taking deep breaths. "It appears that my food decided to show itself."

They all stared down at me in silence while I heard my savior speak in their tongue. It didn't sound like any that I heard before. It was soft, yet quick and full of life and sound that was pleasing to the ear. "I asked you what is your name, mortal woman?" He said, turning my face towards him so he could stare into my eyes. All I could think in that one moment is how similar he looked to the actor that played Haldir in the Lord of the Rings movies. He was truly beautiful beyond what words I could describe in my head in that moment.

I let a low chuckle escape me. "If you keep calling me mortal or woman, you will be dealing with a very low blow to a certain part of your body that I'm sure hurts a lot." I replied a little cheeky. If a angry reaction was what I was expecting to get out of him, I was dead wrong.

Instead, everyone instantly turned their bows, arrow drawn directly at my body as he held up a hand in the air with a sharp command. "I am the march warden of these lands that you have no right to trespass. Tell me what your business is and perhaps I could be of aid to you since you are sopping wet and showing a little too much of your womanly parts to the eyes of my fellow march wardens." He said in a hard voice. "Now I ask you, what is your name?"

"Its Acadia." I gritted through clinched teeth. "And just who's lands am I 'trespassing' on anyway?"

He blew out a breath, but didn't rebuke me for my rude response as the other blonds murmured amide themselves, their fair faces dark. "I don't have time for games from you, Acadia." He responded while picking up in his arms while I let out several loud cursed to put me down. "But I'm sure the lord and lady will have the answers of how to deal with you once we reach the city of Lothlorien."

"Wait a sec!" I cried while plummeting my fist against his chest. "What did you just say you are taking me?"

"I said I'm going to take you to Lothlorien to see the Lady Galadriel and Lord Celeborn." He replied in a confused voice. "Do you not understand what I just said or are you foreign to these parts of Middle Earth that you haven't heard of the greatest beauty of all the high elven race?"

My head spined and my breathing became suddenly too loud to my ears as I tried to understand what was going on and what just had been said. "Please tell me that this isn't a dream, sir!" I cried, grabbing a hold of the front of his leather shirt in my desperate hands. "Tell me that I'm dead and that all of this is just because I'm dead and still in my bed, in my house in Ontario, Canada." Tears were running down my face and the rough abrasion of fabric on my scrapped palms made it clear that I wasn't dreaming.

The pain was real, this strange man and his merry group of blonds with bows and arrows were real. Hell me breaking down and pleading to them was real as it could get.

"How about I get you into some warm clothes and make you something hot to drink first before we start asking questions." He replied in a kinder voice. One of the blonds, a slightly older man, or if this was real, elf as I came to realize that I was currently amide, spoke quietly, shaking his head at my direction.

My savior hesitated but he shook his head, replying a few curt orders at the others before hurrying off into the trees with me still weeping and sodding his leather shirt. It seemed like a few minutes until we came to one that was very large. "Hold on tight to my shirt, Acadia." He ordered me when a silver rope ladder was dropped from the bough above. "I need to use my hands to get us up. Just wrap your legs around my waist and hold on tight."

I barley had enough strength to follow through, but somehow my survival instincts told me that I had no other choice if i wanted to survive. I did as he asked and we were up in the trees in no time before I found myself staring at a very large platform that had a pile of bags and other kinds of things that I couldn't really sees since it was night time. There was plenty of branches and leaves above us that seemed to keep the rain out, but the wind made my shiver ever so violently as I snuggled closer to his body's natural warmth.

"What is your name?" I asked while my mind pretty much figured it already by now since he did mention the words, "Galadriel", "Celeborn" and "Lothlorien". I just wanted to be polite since he did save my life just now.

"Haldir." He replied while placing me amid a pile of furs. One of the elves who were with us had come up and was amid the process of lighting a small fire while Haldir went to rummage through some bags beside me. He pulled out what looked like towels and tossed them at my lap. "Here, dry yourself as much as possible while I find something suitable for you to wear."

"Fine with me." I managed to say between chattering teeth. The two elves turned their backs on me to give me some privacy. They started to talk quietly between them, Haldir sparing a quick glance my way after I somehow managed to take off my pink t-shirt. His cheeks went red when I looked up at him before he averted his gaze back to finding some clothes which he tossed each article after finding that looked like it fit me.

"Thank you, Haldir." I said gratefully. "For saving my life to." I quickly added with a small smile to show my appreciation.

"You're welcome." He replied. "Here, drink this and sleep." He handed me a small cup with something warm. Tasting a small sip, I found it was pleasant to the pallet with a flavor of berries and mint. I drank it all down with gusto while his companion took my clothes and spread them beside the fire to dry.

"I take it that you don't know where you are right now other than you are sitting on a talan with two elves amide a tree?" He chuckled while brushing some of my wet hair from my face. I blushed at the contact while his companion chuckle before coughing into his hand when Haldir abruptly pulled back his hand as if my skin burned him.

"Something of that sort." I replied with a small yawn. He reach over me for something and placed a towel around my head. "You need to keep warm. I can feel your body emitting an unusual amount of warmth, which means you are running with a high fever. Just get some sleep and I'll see how fast we can get you to see a healer back at the city."

"Uh-huh. And I think I'll wake up and find this all a dream." I replied as my body began to relax thanks to the warm drink he gave me and the added warmth from the blankets he had piled on top of me. "Whatever." I said before sleep took a hold of my mind and beyond wearied body.

"So where do you think she comes from since her clothes doesn't look like any that I've seen before." Asked his companion while staring down at the young woman. "She's not from these parts, I can tell you that much."

Haldir reached down and caressed her burning cheek with the back of his hand. "I don't know, but if we don't get her to the healers before the next nightfall, we will be dealing with a dead body to bury before we even reach the city's gates."

His companion peered down a moment longer before shaking his head in amazement. "Can you belive that she actually crossed the river without being carried off in the current? I was ready to run out but you held me back."

"It was more for the safety of us, than for her's since these are dark times with the enemy constantly breaching our boarders in some shape or form." Haldir said quietly while pulling the furs more securely around her and withdrawing a little next to the fire pit. "But yes, its truley a feat that she somehow made it across in one piece. Let's rest. I'll take the first watch while you get some rest. We have a long day ahead if we are going to plan on making to the city by nightfall with her in tow."

"Acadia is strange but very beautiful name. I wonder what it means." The other march warden said out loud while yawning as he fixed himself a spot to sleep.

"As long as it doesn't mean any trouble, I'm fine with aiding her." Haldir replied flatly.

"You and your dry sense of humor, Haldir." The other elf chuckled before drifting off to sleep.

The captain didn't say anything as he stared with his far seeing eyes into the night, a part of his mind curious on the sleeping mortal woman not two feet away from him while the other tried to figure out what or how she came to land herself in the lands of his people.

"I'm sure we will find out once the Lady has looked upon you in the coming days." He said softly as his eyes drifted to her sleeping form. "You are lucky that you didn't run into any Orcs along the way, or else they would have made a good meal out of you after a few other good sport that I'm sure, you mind wouldn't' even dare think of under the light of day."

What a good way to end four, long, hard months of patrol amid the golden trees of the Lady's lands.